


The Broken Time-Turner

by AlexNoelFieldingFan



Series: The Broken Time Turner [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bad german, Basilisks, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Durmstrang, F/M, I am so sorry, I do not know German, It's Not Weird, Leta is like 19 btw, M/M, Reformed Delphi, The plot is crazy as hell but it shouldn't seem like that when you're reading, Time Travel, Time Turner (Harry Potter), google translate german, hopefully
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28628085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexNoelFieldingFan/pseuds/AlexNoelFieldingFan
Summary: Seamus finds a broken time turner, and in desperation for his NEWTs grades presses the button. He's teleported to Durmstrang, but some time travel is going to happen...
Relationships: Seamus Finnigan/Leta Lestrange
Series: The Broken Time Turner [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097879
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Journey to Durmstrang

**Author's Note:**

> How this came into being will be at the end of the chapter if you care.

Seamus turned the small, gold disk around in his hands. He knew what it was, he’d known what it was for weeks, despite not being able to decipher the Latin around the edge. If this had been anything else, he would have gone to Professor McGonagall or Hermione, but as it was…

He should have gone to McGonagall. Even if he didn’t know what it was. A small, gold device mysteriously appeared on his bedside table one day, he should tell someone. 

But the NEWTs panic was beginning to creep up on him.

His finger danced over the large button in the middle as he reflected on his year. Why had he decided to come back to Hogwarts? Just because Dean did. He could have gone to be an auror with Harry, Ron and Neville. Maybe gotten into the ministry from there. He’d been given an out, but no, he’d chosen more exams.

And the golden button shined appealingly, the promise of extra time. What student facing exams would say no?

In other words, what choice did he have?

He pressed the button.

* * *

At first, nothing happened.

Well, that’s what Seamus thought, focussing intently on the golden disk in front of him. He didn’t notice the subtle change in the bedsheets to a darker red, a drop in temperature, the slight depression in the bed behind him. He didn’t actually notice until the cause of the depression spoke. Which, to be fair, didn’t take long.

“Was?”

Seamus whipped his head round to see a man about his age, dressed in heavy furs. “Eh?” He blurted out in reply.

“Was… was machst du hier? Wie bist du hier reingekommen?”

“Who are you? Where the hell am I?”

“Wie bist du hier reingekommen?” He repeated, taking a wand quickly out of his robes. Seamus retaliated, in kind, fumbling his wand from his robes. They stared one another in the eyes, neither moving, each waiting for the other to strike the first blow.

They stood this way for some time until another man entered, the greeting smile on his face fading quickly into confusion, and fear.

“Bjørn, was zum teufel ist los?”

“Ich weiß nicht,” the man, Bjørn presumably, said menacingly. Seamus wished he knew what it meant.

“Hogwarts, Bjørn, Hogwarts,” the other man then said, pointing towards Seamus’ robes before turning to him and speaking to him in a strong accent. “I’m sorry, he doesn’t speak English. What are you doing here? How did you get in here?”

“I don’t… I had this…”

Seamus fumbled in his pockets, trying to remember where he put it. He was here, looking at it, and then Bjørn was pointing a wand at him…

Gone, as suddenly as it arrived.

“I had a, erm, time turner. I don’t know if you-”

The man darkened. “I have heard of those. A secret your government has kept for a decade. I heard they were all destroyed but, then again, I suppose they lied.”

“I don’t know where it came from, but I suppose they did.”

“I’m not too familiar with how they work, but I don’t think that explains how you came here. Hogwarts is in England.”

“Scotland, actually, and I… I don’t know what happened. What’s the time?”

“17:00,” he replied. It took Seamus longer than he would have liked to transfer that to 5pm, the Wizarding World in the UK didn’t have much need for the 24-hour clock. 

“And the date?”

“April 25th.”

“I haven’t moved. Well, I’ve moved here somehow, but time-wise… it didn’t do anything.”

“Interesting,” he said. More curious than suspicious, although Bjørn lurked behind him, clearly defensive of the conversation he didn’t understand a word of. 

“You believe me?”

“Either it is the truth, or we are both idiots; you for coming up with such an unconvincing lie, and me for believing you. I choose to believe the former.”

He turned to Bjørn and spoke a few words of German (Seamus could tell that much), and Bjørn spoke a few words back. He seemed angry, and untrusting, but was soon calmed down. It didn’t stop him from shooting sharp glances to Seamus.

“You have no way to get back?” The man asked him, suddenly.

“No.” Seamus thought about it for a moment. He had no Muggle money, not even any wizarding money. He couldn’t fly a broom very well, hadn’t even tried since third year. How else could he get home?

“Portschlüssel,” Bjørn whispered, sparking another German conversation that Seamus watched helplessly. 

“Bjørn thinks he could get you a portkey, he’s been studying how to make them.”

“That’s advanced magic.”

“It’s in the magic art, erm, charms curriculum. You don’t take charms?”

Seamus nodded. “We don’t learn that though.”

“Hmm. I suppose our curriculum is a little more in-depth.”

“Sure,” Seamus smirked. “How long will it take?”

He turned to Bjørn, who shrugged. “He’s never actually made one before, but he’s learnt the theory. He’ll make sure it’s safe.”

Seamus looked at Bjørn. “Thank you, erm-” he searched through his mind for the German for thank you, which he was sure he knew.

“Dankeschön,” Bjørn replied.

“Dankeschön.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just kept clicking show me a random page on the Harry Potter Wiki until I got a plot. Honestly the later ones get weirder. Anyway all the plots were impossible without time travel so I got time travel involved. Warning: the broken time turner will do literally anything I want it to.


	2. Leta

The man, whose name was Bartek, had given Seamus access to the spare bed in his and Bjørn’s dorm, after someone didn’t come back for final year. He’d stayed there for a day now, waiting impatiently in the room while Bjørn practiced his portkey experiments. Nobody could find out who he was, he didn’t know what the teachers would do. He’d heard tales of spies from other schools, trying to find out secrets that the schools kept so closely guarded. His greatest fear was that someone would think he was one of them.

He didn’t have much to do. He had a wand, at least, but nothing else. He couldn’t even read, all the books here were in German, even though Bjørn was Norweigan and Bartek was Polish. He’d already learnt that Durmstrang was much bigger than Hogwarts, having to take in half of Europe rather than just Britain and Ireland. 

He sat for much of the day on his bed, watching out the window onto the green courtyard below, watching the comings and goings of the students. It was strange, somehow, to see eleven-year-olds in the heavy Durmstrang uniforms, almost struggling under large furs. There wasn’t much else to see though.

Until, of course, something strange happened.

Two girls, dressed in the customary Durmstrang uniform, were shepherding a young woman across the courtyard. It was during lesson, clearly a time calculated when nobody would see them. The young woman, about his age and stunningly pretty (in Seamus’ eyes anyway) was dressed very differently. Her clothes were clearly unsuited to the unseasonably cold April in Durmstrang, and to Seamus’ untrained eye they looked… Edwardian.

Maybe the Time Turner did transport someone through time. Maybe it just wasn’t him.

He had to find out. He cast a disillusionment charm on himself and crept out the door, leaving a note to Bartek that explained what was happening and asking to let him back in afterwards. He crept out to the corridor that came off the courtyard, painstakingly memorising every turn he took in an attempt to be able to find the way back afterwards. Luckily, he caught sight of the three girls ducking into a dormitory. He didn’t want to follow them into the girls’ dormitory, but he didn’t see that he had a choice. He slipped in just before the door closed.

They seemed to know there was someone there, at least the Edwardian one did. She took out her wand (she was a witch, at least) and trailed it through the air past the two confused girls. Until she came to Seamus, still unsure of a way to reveal himself that wouldn’t cause panic. He didn’t have to work that out, as it transpired, as the woman poked him with the wand and muttered a few words. He could feel the warmth as the spell was lifted, and could see the fear in the other girls’ faces.

“Hi. Erm, auf wie- no. Wait.”

“Who are you?” One of the girls asked, fearfully.

“Seamus. Seamus Finnigan. I’m from Hogwarts…” He turned to the woman. “Who are you?”

“Leta. You’re from Hogwarts? I went to Hogwarts?”

“Right.” He had assumed, from the moment she opened her mouth and he could hear the clear English accent. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Why are you sorry?”

“I think… I think I brought you here. I didn’t mean to, I wasn’t trying to, but… what year are you from?”

“1915,” she said. She didn’t seem scared, she seemed… strong. Defiant. He was impressed, he’d be scared out of his wits. “And I know what year it is now, they’ve told me.”

He nodded. “I had this - this time turner-”

“What?”

“It’s a, erm, device. It can… turn back time. It was broken, though. Had this crack on it. Didn’t look like a normal one, either. It had a- you don’t know what they look like anyway. They were only invented about ten years ago. And they were all destroyed, except… I just wanted more time on my exams,” he said, pathetically. 

“Time turner,” Leta said thoughtfully, rolling the words around her mouth, trying to make some sense of them. “But how did that-”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I didn’t think it did anything, but I guess it did, just not to me. Well, it took me here, of course.”

“Has anything else happened?”

“Not that I know of.”

“I suppose-”

But she was cut off by glass shattering as the window broke, and all four of them dove behind the beds. Spells came through the open window, mostly stunning spells but a couple of reducto ones smashed a few pieces of furniture around the room. Leta began to shoot spells back, peeking over the bed, but none seemed to find their mark. It was unsurprising, as she couldn’t even see the assailant. Seamus fired a few back, but embarrassingly was more focussed on how close Leta’s body was pressed to his. 

One of the other girls began to creep back out of the room, and the other one followed her. They left quickly, but Leta showed no signs of moving yet. It was too far for them to run away from this bed. He didn’t know what the girls did, but the spells stopped quickly, and him and Leta cautiously raised their head to look through the broken window. There was nobody there. 

“Reparo,” Seamus muttered, relieved, and the room brought itself back into order. The girls rushed back to the room.

“It was a girl she was… she was dressed like you,” one of them panted, out of breath. 

“Exactly like me? Same colours?”

She nodded.

“A Gryffindor,” Seamus mused. “A student, as well. Do you think I brought them here?”

“Seems likely,” Leta replied. She glanced at the recently broken window. “It’s not safe here, she could come back. We should move. 

Seamus nodded. “Come with me.”

The two girls, who were unwilling to even step foot inside their room, followed him gratefully, constantly looking around themselves. Seamus was edgy too, only Leta seemed the picture of calm elegance. He managed to find his way back to the room, luckily unseen, and knocked on the door. Bjørn opened the door a crack to see him, and let them in.

“Who are they?” Bartek asked.

One of the girls giggled slightly and said a few words in German to him, clearly explaining her and her friend.

“Und sie?” He asked, gesturing to Leta. Seamus heard her name mixed in there, as the two of them stood awkwardly, waiting for the conversation to end. Bjørn had clearly heard enough, and went into the bathroom, shrugging. Seamus guessed that after he had appeared, this wouldn’t be all that surprising.

They didn’t have a chance to finish their conversation, however, as a high-pitched scream rang out from the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually turning out to be a vaguely normal story. I'm genuinely surprised. See, you didn't think that when you clicked the Seamus Finnigan/Leta Lestrange fic, did you?


	3. Someone New

“Bjørn? Geht es dir gut?” Bartek shouted, terrified, as they all ran to the bathroom door. Bjørn stood there, unmoving, as he stared at a figure on the floor. She was small and thin, and dressed in grey rags. Seamus recognised those grey rags from every picture from the break out of Azkaban. Those were prison robes. She had icy blue hair too, growing in scraggly strands down past her shoulders. She looked terrified. Seamus stepped forward and held out a hand to her, but Bjørn batted it away.

“Was tust du? Azkaban,” he said angrily, but Seamus pulled himself out of his grip. Again, he offered his hand to her, and she took it timidly. Seamus had learnt from a year under you-know-who’s reign that those in Azkaban weren’t necessarily evil.

Bjørn nodded stiffly at him. He clearly wasn’t happy about it, but what could he do?

“She’s from Azkaban?” Leta asked.

Seamus nodded. “That might not mean anything.”

“No. No, I know that.” She smiled uncertainly at the girl. “Hello.”

“Hi,” the girl replied.

“I’m Seamus, and this is Leta.” The rest had left to have a conversation in the next room. “What’s your name?”

“Delphini, erm Delphi. Delphi Diggory.”

“Diggory? Were you related to Cedric?”

She nodded uncertainly. “He was my cousin.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “I never knew him.”

“You never-” Cogs whirred in Seamus’ brain. “What year is it?”

She smiled for the first time. “2021. Of course. Why, what year do you think it is?”

The year elicited a small gasp from Leta

“I  _ know _ what year it is, Delphi, I’m sorry. There was some… some things happened. A time turner-”

“A time turner?” Delphi asked suddenly, concerned. “What kind of time turner?”

“It was, erm, golden. It had a button in the middle. And a big crack. I pressed it and it… took me here. I didn’t change time, but Leta came to the future and you… you came to the past.”

“What year is it?” Delphi asked, suddenly afraid. 

“1999.”

Delphi breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“Good?” Leta asked, concerned. 

“Oh, some - erm - bad things happened last year. It wasn’t good. I wouldn’t want to go back there either,” he told her. 

“I was one in 1999,” Delphi mused.

“I’d be 103,” Leta replied, and they both giggled. 

One of the girls appeared at the door. “It’s OK, you can stay with us until we get you back. Leta, erm-”

“Delphi,” Delphi replied.

“Delphi, come with us. We’ll get you some clothes.”

“Are you going back to your room?” Seamus asked, concerned. The girl shook her head. “There’s some seventh years across the hall who said we could use their room. Bartek and Bjørn know them.”

“Right. Stay safe,” Seamus said to the girls, although more to Leta than anything. She smirked in reply, they both knew she was more capable of looking after herself than he was. As Delphi was leaving a small head poked out of the sleeve of her robes.

“Is that a snake?” Seamus asked, and she turned suddenly. She took the small, green snake out of her sleeve.

“Er, yeah.” The snake looked angry, like it wanted to bite him, but Delphi made some strange hissing noises and it calmed down. Seamus had heard those before.

“You’re a parseltongue?”

“Yeah,” she said bashfully. “I smuggled her into Azkaban. Don’t think I would have survived without her.”

“Can I?” Seamus asked, reaching his hand forward to stroke her. Delphi shrugged and hissed a few words to the snake, calming it enough it stroke. “What’s her name?”

“Er, Bella.”

“Pretty name.”

“Yeah.”

“Delphi,” Leta called from the other room. Delphi took Bella away and left with the other girls. Seamus watched Leta leave until he was brought out of his reverie by Bartek.

“So you got attacked?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Anything to do with the time turner.”

Seamus shrugged. “It’s gotta be, hasn’t it? Be a bit of a coincidence otherwise.”

“It was someone from Hogwarts, too.”

“Yeah, must have brought her here. Maybe she was angry.”

“But how would she know it was you?”

“If she saw me… in my uniform. It wouldn’t be an awful guess.”

“It doesn’t seem like something you’d do for a guess.”

“Yeah.” 

At that moment, an owl flew in through the window and dropped a letter on Seamus’ lap. The owl didn’t even stop, it just flew right out the window again.

Seamus opened it, and read the neat handwriting.

‘You’ve seen what I can do. Meet me tomorrow and nobody will get hurt. The courtyard outside your room at midnight. I’ll be waiting. Bring it.’

“Bring it?” Bartek asked, reading over Seamus’ shoulder. “Bring what?”

“The portkey, maybe. If she wants to get back to Hogwarts. She might not even be from a different time, like me. Is Bjørn ready?”

“Bjørn?” Bartek asked. “Portschlüssel?”

Bjørn held up a book he was reading on his bed, something about Portschlüssels emblazoned across the front. 

“He might have to be ready,” Seamus said. “We can’t risk not bringing it. Who knows what she might do?”

“OK. Bjørn, bereit?”

He shrugged. “Good enough,” Seamus said. “We’ll just have to hope.”


	4. Midnight

Midnight, Seamus, Leta and Delphi crept into the courtyard. They could see the mysterious figure, her back turned to them, hard to make out in the darkness.

“Hello? We have it.”

Seamus held the quill tight in his hand, keeping his mind on the time, praying he doesn’t disappear before the time, leaving the others at her mercy. She turned around slowly.

“Give it to me,” she said in the darkness. He recognised that voice, and strained his eyes in the darkness.

“Katie? Katie Bell? You-”   
“Give it to me!”

“Okay, okay.” He handed the quill over. “Here it is. But, Katie, why didn’t you just-”

“What is this?”

“What?”

“What is this?”

“It’s a portkey,” Leta told her. “You wanted - that’s what you-”

“No! Not this, I don’t care, I can apparate you idiot… where’s the time turner?”

“The time turner?”

“I saw you with it. You’ve been walking around with it for weeks, I just couldn’t do anything at Hogwarts. I tracked you here… give it to me.”

“I didn’t… bring you here?”

“No, how could you? I need it.”

“Why? What for?”

She hesitated a moment. The fire in her eyes dulled. “My brother. He… last year… he died.  _ He _ got to him.” Seamus could hear Delphi shift uncomfortably next to him. “I have to get him back.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“He was a squib!” She shouted, and brandished her wand threateningly. “He was a squib, and he - and Voldemort - he got to him. So give it to me!”

“I don’t - I don’t have it?”

“ _ What? _ ”

“It’s gone. It just… disappeared. Same as it appeared. It’s gone Katie, I’m sorry. He’s gone.”

“No, no-” she said weakly, before once more brandishing her wand at them. “No. It brought them back, it can bring him back too. I  _ need _ it. Give it to me!”

A slight tingling began at his fingertips. Leta was reaching for her wand but he nudged her, and Delphi too. It was soon.

“Now!” he shouted. The three of them touched the feather and were whisked away. The last think Seamus saw was Katie’s shocked face, reaching forward to come with them, but too late.

They were gone.

Back into his room at Hogwarts, Dean staring at them open-mouthed with shock.

“We made it,” he breathed. “We did it, we’re back.”

“Where were you?” Dean asked. “Our transfiguration exam is tomorrow, you just disappeared. Snape and McGonagall are furious. And who are they?”

“Leta, Delphi, Dean,” he introduced. “They - oh, it’s complicated.”

“And what happens now?” Leta asked.

“Yeah, where do we go?” Delphi added.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I can get you back, I’m sorry. Not that you would want to,” he gestured to Delphi, who nodded enthusiastically in reply. “But Leta.”

“I didn’t have that great a life, back there. There’s things… people I’ll miss. But I suppose there’s no alternative. There’s things I won’t miss. And there’s good things here, too.”

She smiled at Seamus, who smiled in return. Delphi laughed slightly.

“Okay, I’m out of here,” Dean said, making his way to the door, shaking his head.

“Sorry Dean, I’ll explain it later. Could you get - erm, Ginny? I need to talk to her.”

Dean sighed, and Seamus knew he was weighing up their friendship against the prospect of seeing his ex. “Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks, mate.”

Dean left, leaving the three of them alone together.

“So we’re stuck here?” Leta asked.

Delphi nodded, but she was smiling.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, just… home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There might be a sequel, I'm really interested in Leta and Delphi being in 90s Hogwarts. Also Leta and Seamus actually getting together not just a bit of flirting.
> 
> I have since realised that Katie Bell is in the year above Seamus and would therefore not be in Hogwarts uniform. However I have also decided that for now I do not care. You'll just have to deal with that.


	5. Epilogue

“Seamus! Leta! It’s so good to see you!”

“Thanks, Bartek, it’s good to see you too. It’s been years.”

“I know. But you guys live so far away!”

“No,  _ you _ live too far away. It’s a shame Delphi couldn’t make it.”

“She’s so busy at the shop,” Leta replied. “She sends best wishes, though.”

“Yes, I’m sure. It’ll have to wait until  _ your  _ wedding.”

They laughed, and Seamus and Leta pulled one another a little tighter, until Bjørn walked by and Seamus had to free himself to hail him. “Bjørn!”

“Seamus! It is good to see you again,” he said slowly, and Seamus smiled. 

“Und du,” Leta replied. Seamus had briefly tried to learn German, taught by Bartek, a few years previously, but discovered he was hopeless at it. Leta was much better, knowing French already. Bjørn laughed slightly in reply, before saying a few words to Bartek and leading his new husband to some other friends.

“They seem so happy,” Leta said. “Makes me look forward to July.”

“Nothing else?”

She thought for a moment. “Changing my surname,” she said finally, and laughed. Seamus laughed too. 

“Ah, you’re just using me.”

“Do you think if I could choose any name it would be Mrs Finnigan?”

“Mrs Leta Finnigan,” Seamus said enjoying the sound of it. “I think that might be the best name in the world.”

“Hmm,” Leta smiled. “I think you might be right.”

They laughed, and danced to a combination of European music Seamus didn’t know and English classics. A few people tried to talk to them in languages they didn’t know and Leta managed to carry a couple of conversations in German, including one of the girls who had looked after her in Durmstrang. 

It was like a practice for their happy day in a few short months, back at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I got weirdly emotional at Bartek and Bjørn being in love don't judge me. Also I don't know how to end chapters. Anyway, yes, thank you, like it or something? That would make me happy.

**Author's Note:**

> I just kept clicking show me a random page on the Harry Potter Wiki until I got a plot. Honestly the later ones get weirder. Anyway all the plots were impossible without time travel so I got time travel involved. Warning: the broken time turner will do literally anything I want it to.


End file.
